Review: A&A aka Anton Kubikov and Artem Rudakov, share a groovy, Detroit-influenced casualiser of an EP, bouncing between slipstreams of rubbery bass and slick, soulful chord voicings. Whatever said "blue transfer box" is, we're unsure whether it's wise to ask what exactly said box is transferring, or simply leave the mystery be. After all, it sounds great. And besides, we've also a 'Slow Disco Smoke Machine' to marvel at, one which wafts effortlessly between dreamboats of blue pad smoke and acidic stabs, facilitating the necessary headspace for 'Deep Thought'.
Review: We are real fans of the PIV label out of the Netherlands for the way they have bright plenty of new thinking to house and tech. Their Limited label off-shoot is even more forward-thinking and this time welcomes ADR for some of their signature sounds. 'Daft Excluder' gets underway with flappy snares and a nice nebulous ecosystem of neon synth details and snappy drums. The Casey Spillman remix gets more punch with wet clicks and a garage tinge to the drums. 'Professor Magnet' sinks you into a bulbous bass line that is warped and fluid under snappy claps and 'Infinity808' brings nice and trippy electro vibes and a kinetic rhythm to close. It might be the best of the lot.
Review: After spending the majority of his 20-plus-year career flitting between the Kompakt and Coneme labels, Matias Aguayo makes a rare outing on another label - a delayed debut for Matt 'Radio Slave' Edwards' REKIDS imprint. In its' original form (side A), 'El Internet' is a typically off-kilter affair in which his own poetic, spoken word vocals (in Chilean, of course) and fuzzy, elongated synth sounds ride a beefy but wonky bassline and the long-serving producer's usual South American-tinged, hand percussion-enhanced hybrid house/techno grooves. It comes accompanied by a vocal-free instrumental mix, where the full breadth and depth of Aguayo's production can be heard, and a useful acapella DJ tool.
Review: Lempuyang is a label you will know and respect for its high quality stream of immersive dub techno and now the man behind it, Alastair Kelly, debuts a new label with none other than revered UK techno mainstay Ibrahim Alfa Jnr. He opens up with 'Component A' which is a moody melange of slow, broken dub beats and fizzing synths. There is further experimentation on 'Untitled B2 1' which pairs a churning dub rhythm with naive and innocent melodies and lots of li-fi static. 'Entangled' ups the ante with the suggestion of a fast paced rhythm through a skeletal groove and the flip brings broken beat dub weight, meaning and percussive bass with a 2-step swagger then deep introspection on the closer. A classy EP that suggests this label is one well worth watching.
Review: Phoenix man Eddie Amador is synonymous with one track more than any other artist in the game. He wrote 'House Music' in 1997 and it soon became a club anthem that has endured over the years. Now, decades on, he is back with a follow-up of sorts in the form of 'House Music Dos (Doin' It House Style.' The lyrics from the original, "not everyone understands house music, it's a spiritual thing, a body thing, a soul thing," still hold true and fragments of that tune appear here next to fresh funky drums and gritty chords. 'Househeads In Full Effect' has a darker vocal that infuses low-slung drums and a funny bassline with real menace.
Review: Superfriends is a new label project from German tech house duo Andhim. They take care of the first release and export outside the usual realms on opener 'Tosch (feat Piper Davis).' It has an air of DJ Koze's hazy nostalgia to it with gentle tumbling drums, broad bass notes and plenty of lo-fi texture. 'German Winter' is not as harsh and cold as the season it is named after, instead layering up subtly hopeful, sustained chords over a groove that's not too heavy, not too airy. 'Mond' brings smeared and smudged melodies, flutes and pianos together over a dubby, delightfully deep house low end. 'Horse Society' closes with the distant sound or bird tweets, a hooky percussive lead and plodding kicks for day-time open-air dancing.
Review: Club Vision's tenth release celebrates a deep creative bond with Atimpuri who presents his standout new EP, Epic Wave. The A-side opens with 'Critical Moments,' a euphoric house cut radiating warmth and positivity that you cannot escape. The title track follows and delivers a hypnotic trance journey driven by energetic drums and an unforgettable lead riff. On the B-side, 'Morning Crying' channels classic 90s house with lush pads and a bold bassline, while 'Smw' offers a dreamy breakbeat closer rich with strings and immersive effects. Blending past and present, Atimpuri crafts a sound that's both nostalgic and forward-thinking here.
Review: This new 12" from Glaswegian producer Harvey McKay sees him reworking Daniel Avery's 'Drone Logic' into a driving, big-room missile i and it absolutely slaps. Upping the tempo and leaning into a more percussive framework, McKay doesn't just touch up the original's swirling psychedelia, he rebuilds it for peak-time pressure. The acid line is still there, twisted and stretched, but now it rides atop galloping drums, shimmering hi-hats and the kind of pneumatic swing that's become McKay's signature. It's a brand new release on Phantasy, pressed in a limited run of 500 and already a fixture in the sets of Avery, McKay and Erol Alkan. The sound is somewhere between soulful techno and heads-down warehouse hypnosis i powerful without being punishing. What's clever is how it stays true to the hazy mood of the source, but flips it into something entirely more immediate. As a one-sided 12" it's a bold statement, but one that's easy to understand: it only needs one track when it hits this hard. Built for high ceilings, smoke machines and stretched-out moments mid-set, this is an edit that earns its hype. A slow-burn classic reborn as a proper dancefloor weapon.
Review: Andrew Azara makes an electrifying return to Cecille with his 'Cosmic Girl' EP, delivering five exceptional originals alluding to French house, disco edits and minimal techno. Hailing from Dublin and now thriving in Barcelona, Azara has majored in force since 2019, with audiences across Europe and South America, and former releases on Djebali. 'Cosmic Girl' opens the EP with pounding drums, dubby stabs, and hypnotic, fluttering textures, setting the stage for an intermediary shuffle, 'Mattika', in turn bringing headier blends of organic percussion and transitional "whoops". 'The Jam' strips things back to a minimal, raw groove, while 'Obsession' closes with a bass-heavy, swung garage house extension. You won't find the digital bonus, 'Doing It,' here, but we can also vouch for its mesmerising hold over us dance-zombies.
Review: Emergent talent B Ai, hailing from China, contributes to Paris-based label and Chat Noir family member Cosa Vostra, following storm surging releases on Motivation, Altered Circuits and Picnic Records. Spanning post-EBM lasershot fires and SFX-ed spanners-in-works, 'Act5' kicks off 'Blue Or Red' with a tense introductory interstate hyperride, while 'Glance Back' offers us a contrasting chance to look back down the road on whose mac we've just blazed a thick, blackened tire tread trail. Diego Santana crops up on the B1 titler, guiding through a tight Italodance au-diorama, while another fellow producer, David Agrella, lets us down further on the synth tubular breather 'Danse'.
Review: Danish artists B From E lands on the increasingly impressive French label Happiness Therapy with a trio of new EPS that delve into spirituality and pay home to the transformative power of dancing. 'Siphonophore' gets underway with a trance-laced melodic edge and high-speed drums then hypnotic neo-trance layers wash over you on the speedy 'Storm' and 'Dreams Of Sasabone' taps in the hard house revival with bouncy but funky kicks and glowing neon pads. 'Love & Joy '97 has an old-school feel with euro dance beats and warped basslines and 'Planet Love' completes the trip with a blend of psychedelic synth colours, filtered vocals and optimism in the uplifting grooves.
Review: B.Love is next up on Leeds legend Ralph Lawson's 20/20 label having come to his attention on Record Store Day 2024 with his Music Dance Experience EP and then later that day when playing as a resident at the Bizarre Trax party Lawson was en route to play. Here he showcases his electro sound across four cuts starting with 'Rhythm Freq', a celestial and disco-tinged sound. 'Movement Feeling' is a party starting cut with old school style and plenty of percussive lushness, then 'Soda Junior' brings louche, low-slung disco funk before 'Bisous' shuts down with more cosmic playfulness and vibrant synth colours.
Review: Plenty of neologistic fun can be had with the work "break", but we must admit that "breakflow" is a new one on us. Lisboa produtor b0n impresses such sonic and titular genii with a new, green-goo-hued four-track EP on Portgal's fantastical Magic Carpet label, spanning clean future progressive and garage-acid tempos. The title track and 'Sasha Palomal' only tease the unortho-breaks with tricky garage beats and straighter but admittedly still formative breaksteps; it's only by the point of the B-siders 'Positive Morph' and 'Fractures' that any such fluvial breakbeat is properly put back together and course-corrected. Be warned, the latter track moves through the nicely rare variants of freestyle and "electrance"; careful not to dance yourself to breakdown.
Review: Berlin-via-Tokyo artist Courtney Bailey lands on Naarm's Animals Dancing with a debut packed with hypnotic force. Three versions of 'I Wanna Feel You' form the core: the Berlin cut drifts in slow and hazy, Bailey's bilingual vocal wrapping around a rubbery acid line and slinky percussion. Tornado Wallace's Tokyo version ramps up the pressure with sharper drums and a more focused low end, while the short version distils its essence into a tooly spiral. 'Animals Ate The Mushroom' is a wild-eyed polyrhythmic trip, bristling with shakers, broken FX and warped animalistic calls. 'I See The Future' edges closer to dancefloor propulsion, FM bass flickering beneath spectral vocals and birdlike synths. Released on Wurundjeri Country, this marks the offering number 12 from the label and a powerful first move for Bailey. Equal parts lucid and dreamlike, it imagines a world just out of reach: a city populated only by animals, where language breaks down and rhythm takes over.
Review: LEGRAM VG & Rubber Ducky Records have come together for this playful Game of Tunes series, and the third entry in it offers four more wafty tech house delights. Baldov's 'Dance Connection' is a balmy and breezy opener with some warm synth injections to soften the rickety tech beats. Sif B's 'Small World' is a bubbly cut with sci-fi motifs and Buenaguas's 'Music Or Noise?' Marries distant cosmic pads with sparky synth sequences that make for some nice colourful combinations. Alich's 'The Evidence' is the best of the lot - a pent-up, garage-tinged kicker with ass-wiggling beats and acid prickles. Pure heat.
Review: Deeper shades of a finely sifted pedigree. Irish label Appian Sounds, helmed up by Al Blayney, champion only winnowed techno sounds, not threshed. A welcome international team huddle in, with these six artists from locales as far-flung as Amsterdam and Valencia contributing the likes of 'Tsuneo' and 'Persist'. The tunes verge melodic as they move through and beyond jankiness, distending die-cut acids and subtly synthetic humanisations, especially in the percussion department. 'Fuego' is the zen roshi's choice, its gaffered, glass-smithed pads topping off a naturalistic percussive surging forward, one best experienced with your eyes closed.
Review: We shall never apologise for our love for the work of Steve O'Sullivan. His contributions to the world of dub techno are second to none. They are also mad consistent both in style and quality which means they never age. Here he steps up to Lempuyang with his Blue Channel alias alongside Jonas Schachner aka Another Channel for more silky smooth fusions of authentic dub culture and Maurizo-style techno deepness. Watery synths, hissing hi-hats with long trails and dub musings all colour these dynamic grooves. They're cavernous and immersive and frankly irresistible and the sort of tracks that need to be played loud in a dark space. In that context, you'll never want them to end.
Review: This Biscuit release is a fierce four-track punch built dancefloor disruptors. Opening the A-side, France's BOOH (aka BOOOoo! Records co-founder) delivers 'Hidden Between Two Ferns,' a punishing blend of EBM and electro that morphs with dark energy. A2 sees Argentina's Micro.Tron bring pure electro muscle with 'Microclima Robot,' a rhythm-heavy cut that hits with precision. On the flip, JJ Fortune drops the epic and destructive 'Then I Dropped It' while Vloon closes with a snarling, high-voltage electro weapon. Raw, trippy and relentless, this one's built to shake basements and bend minds.
Review: Margate-based Braga Circuit showcases a refined signature style and knack for killer sampling with this standout debut on Air Miles. 'Fall' kicks off with amped-up chord stabs and brilliantly well-swung, rolling kicks that soon get those hips moving. 'Closer' oozes summer cool thanks to the balmy chords that soften the percussive, garage-flecked house drums. There is also plenty of Kerri Chandler soul in these here beats that makes them all the more essential. 'Filter Feed' layers up dusty perc and thudding kicks with sultry vocal whispers. It's steamy and irresistible and last but not least, Leod is another talent from the coastal town of Margate and remixes this one with a more direct and dubby style.
Review: Esente Records' young journey continues with a second offering that builds on the good work of the first. This one comes from Bucharest's BRYZ and is a masterclass in refined electronic minimalism. Opening up the trip is 'Slippery,' a fluid blend of supple rhythm and texture with plenty of characterful sound designs and details peeling off the beats. 'Self Definition' follows with introspective tones that invite personal exploration and on the B-side, 'She's Infinite Bliss' delivers an ethereal, almost otherworldly atmosphere while 'Eternal Sheevy' closes the journey with a timeless, lingering resonance. Each track reflects the deep, minimal aesthetic Esente is known for-subtle but not lacking power, and introspective yet dancefloor-ready.
Review: Analogue pressure from Bufobufo, who stops over in Japan for Cabaret Recordings after earlier international stints with Art Of Dark, Partout and Furthur Electronix. His second single for the label, founded by So Inagawa and DJ Masda, proffers a hypnotic blend, binarising the mood with the sliding melodes of 'Watercourse' and 'Armour Plated' with comparatively sparse and gritty perc-slaps of 'Wood Ant' and 'Cinnabar'. That strange but difficult-to-nail split between of hypnotic intrigue and immediacy is well and truly nailed.
B-STOCK: Sleeve damaged but otherwise in excellent condition
Spacewoman (instrumental) (5:45)
Let Go (4:31)
Dark Waver (5:09)
In The Night (4:46)
Review: ***B-STOCK: Sleeve damaged but otherwise in excellent condition***
Polish sensation Charlie delivers the instrumental mix of title track, 'Spacewoman,' on Wrong Era. It is a real gem that features powerful percussion and mesmerising, infectious arpeggios that stay true to her authentic Proto-Italo style. Charlie's mysterious vocals craft an esoteric narrative with lyrics like "I fly where infinity expands" propelling listeners deeper into her universe and the euphoric chorus offers a transcendental experience that only adds to the interstellar journey.
Review: Burnski's high-quality Constant Black is back with more essential club-ready sounds. Donnie Cosmo and Pascal Benjamin step up for one side of action each. Cosmo's 'Holo Glitch' is first and pairs balmy synth work that is colourful and silky with some punchy tech drums and rolling bass that pulls you in deep. 'Echo Drift' is another lithe and lively one to get you on your toes while the groove flows and 'Airplane Mode' is another stylish mix of lush synth design and great rhythm. Benjamin's trio on the flip is a little more gritty with industrial-space-tech many the most fitting way to describe these curious cosmic cuts.
Review: The Fruit Medley series has been hella juicy so far so we're glad another edition is ripe and ready for picking to kick off the label's 2025 season. This one features all newcomers starting with Cromie's 'Timereite', a chubby and clubby tech pumper with full throttle rhythms. Wilba's 'New Recipes' has lush synth smears over grinding low ends that echo early West Coast tech, and Darren Roach then gets a little deeper on the percolating 'Brettski Colectski'. Lazer Man's 'Time Of Ghosts' closes down with a mid-tempo, off-kilter house cut with steely drums and distant alien activity.
Review: The Paris-based producer pulls in a tight circle of remixers, each putting a distinct spin on a few of his recent tracks for his own Bass Culture label. Darren Roach's remix of 'Money, Honey, Monday' stretches the original into a spacey, progressive journey. The atmosphere is thick with delay and synth haze, but it still hits with the steady pulse of a house record built for peak time. Sweely steps in on 'Nu Bass' with a funkier approach. It's playful and full of bounce, guided by a deep bassline and flecks of disco that make it hard not to move. Melodic without getting sugary, it's a proper mood lifter. Side-B leans into the deeper end. DJ Deep's version of 'Nu Bass' goes darker and more hypnotic. It's tracky, minimal and slick, perfect for long, late-night times where you want to lose yourself. Hostom wraps it up with another take on 'Money, Honey, Monday'. This one built around a rolling bassline and polished production that gives it a bit of a restrained punch. A solid pack with plenty of replay value.
Review: Dashiell has been road testing these two tunes in his sets for a while, and they have always done a job. They finally arrive on wax courtesy of Foul Play and are sure to get dropped all over the place this summer. 'dfuse all the tension' is the right mix of driving tech but wonky minimal. The bassline is drunk and all over the place while the lead synth has a retro video game feel, and some crisp melodies and refracted vocals finish it well. On the flip, 'da nastiest' is faster and more direct with some turbocharged and bass-driven tech house characterised by another sleazy vocal and phased synth lines that bring a playful twist.
Review: REPRESS ALERT!: In case you didn't know, Reliance is yet another label from man like Burnski, the UK powerhouse who is almost single-handedly spearheading a sound that fuses garage, house and tech into something irresistible for the club. He invites Job de Jong to step up for the label's second outing and 'Dub House' is a great opener with just the right amount of bounce, melody and heart. Kepler remixes it into a percussive stomper with siren stabs and dusty perc. 'Emergency' is a trippy melodic workout that bends space and time and 'Don't Wanna Stop, Dub Stop' chucks a killer vocal into the mix over sleazy drums and garage drums that are always going to get big reactions.
Review: Not to be confused with the heavy Dutch electro hero of the same name (he of Klakson Records fame), Dexter was the early-to-mid 2000s alias of UK tech-house producer Matt Royall. Sushitech Records recently released a retrospective of his work, Past Moves, and now German label Repeat has decided to reissue 2004's Size Counts EP. A-side 'Break It Down' is deep, druggy, chuggy and pleasingly off-kilter, with delay-laden spoken word snippets and echoing hand percussion hits rising above a driving bassline and hypnotic, locked-in drums. The pace and intensity increases on flipside 'Once Again', a kind of Hipp-E & Halo style West Coast tech-house workout rich in trippy female vocal snippets, ghostly chords and dubby bass.
Review: A punctual reissue of a rare Eye 4 Sound tech-acid house party starter from 2004, this Repeat version of Dexter's 'Paradox' stays faithful to one of many EPs in UK artist Mat Royall's regal flush of technical itches to last from 01 to 06, spread across labels like Beat Code, Random House and, in more recent years, Real Deal and Bosh Records. 'Paradox' is subset by the fun-loving 'Ychtm Acid' on the B-side, and while we can't claim to be so clever as to be able to decode this standout track's strange titular acronym, we can vouch for the sickness of its eccentric percussions and atmosphere, a fine case of what we call "mood design".
Review: Dark tech house's current Olympic torch-bearer, Inermu, present the seventh edition in their very own vari-prod vinyl series. A polysemous production outfit whose guises vary, this new one from Dexter James and Dominic Aquila presents a hard-nosed heater from the lockoff London crew. With most of their releases having been housed on black labels so far, this one is an exceptional whiteout, with lemni-skating delays and conga-happy tribal drives resounding across 'Tougher & Darker' and 'Music For Dark Rooms'. 'No Other' completes the record with a downtime B-side, with subtle pad swirls and taciturn talking drums working well as substitute basslines.
Review: DIGWAH marks its tenth release in style, maintaining its signature mystery while delivering two standout cuts that embody the British label's underground ethos. Side-A's 'Wayside' is a clutch tech-house banger that has finesseiclean, classy and an irresistibly groovy. A crisp breakbeat underpins a funky rhythm, while a strong vocal hooks you in, giving the track a timeless yet fresh feel. This is underground house at its best, effortlessly balancing sophistication with dancefloor heat. On the flip, 'Demeanour' leans into ghetto tech-house territory, with a weighty bassline and infectious r&b vocal samples. The groove is deep, the funk is undeniable and the track's raw energy makes it an instant mover. Another essential release from DIGWAH - stripped-back, hypnotic and built for those who know.
Review: Chicago has many legendary figures, but one who stands proud among many is DJ Deeon, a low-end legend and widely considered to be the true Godfather of ghetto house. He dropped this EP originally back in 2013, and it is one of many that soon became classic, which is why it gets this remix from Chiwax. 'Happy' perfectly summarises Deeon's sound - booming and heavyweight kick and drums, smart samples looped perfectly and big hooks. 'The Truth' speeds things up and brings that Ghetto sleaze, and 'R U Sure' is a more minimal sound that still bangs like a heavyweight. 'Gigabytes' is full of caustic synths and blending melodies that bring sheer chaos to the club.
Review: He's the original (and maybe only self-proclaimed?) house gangster and he is back in 2025 and sounding as good as ever. Puerto Rico by way of Chicago's DJ Sneak makes beats as raw as the meat he likes to chuck on his BBQ grill and UK house legend Nail must be a fan cause it's his label he lands on now. This is a solid four-tracker that ticks all the boxes with its killer grooves and smart loops. 'All I Need In Life' is a playful opener, 'Das Gud!' gets more intense and trippy with its bleepy melodic refrains and 'Help Me Somebody' then sinks back into loose and dusty, disco-tinged drums with classic cowbell hits. 'What You Expecting From Me' is a sweaty and gritty warehouse banger to close with aplomb.
Review: Original Chi-Town bad man DJ Sneak shows up with his latest selection of loop-driven house jams, serving up five floor-focused cuts on the 'Disko Dialogue' EP. A key figure in the second wave of Chicago house, his prolific career has seen him explore acid house, disco cut-ups, and hypnotic, tracky realms. Much, if not all, of that is on display here. The title track features looped strings and echoing vocals over a pounding kick and skippy snares, while 'Kick Da Flow' follows a similar trajectory, albeit with a slightly more restrained mood. 'Bottom Acid' ups the energy with pulsing 303 gliding over piercing drums, while 'Acid Wunders' dives into trippier territory, with its nocturnal groove endlessly undulating. The rolling rhythms of 'Elements' cap a fine EP, with DJ Sneak proving he's lost none of his big-room bravado or production swagger.
Review: After taking a hiatus to focus on side projects, DJENA returns with a new solo EP that artfully collides house and breakbeat while showing off his passion for eclecticism. The title track, 'In Motion,' is a hypnotic breakbeat piece with deep pads and tribal vocals that stir up raw emotion. Frenchman DJ W!LD's remix transforms it into a dancefloor anthem with a house-driven groove. On the B-side, 'Thrust' builds deep, tech house rhythms into an intense, peak-time surge and the closing track 'Veer' offers a sublime after-hours vibe with bouncy bass and haunting vocals. Welcome back DJENA.
Review: Detroit Assembly Line kicks off with a powerful statement of intent, delivering four tracks of raw, intense techno from two key figures in the Detroit underground scene. A-side, Drivetrain opens with 'People!'ia relentless track that drives forward with uncompromising energy, followed by 'Notech,' which layers intricate rhythms with a futuristic edge. Over on the B-side, Antwon Faulkner brings the deep, dubby feel of 'The Dub,' before turning up the heat with 'Cyber War,' a hard-hitting track that packs all the urgency of Detroit's signature sound. This is the first release in the Detroit Assembly Line seriesia collection built to showcase the unfiltered, authentic noise of Detroit's techno legacy. It's a no-nonsense manifesto, made to remind the world of the city's continuing influence on the global underground.
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